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Friday, December 09, 2005

Passengers, witnesses describe terrifying landing

Skid kills one boy.

CHICAGO, Illinois (CNN) -- People aboard Southwest Flight 1248 -- and witnesses on the ground -- described the harrowing moments before and after the jet ran off the runway Thursday night at Chicago's Midway International Airport, plowed into an intersection and killed a boy in a car.In a news conference Friday, Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly said that it was the first fatal accident involving a Southwest flight in the discount carrier's 35-year history.In addition to the boy's death, about a dozen people were injured and taken to hospitals, according to Southwest Airlines.It had been snowing all day Thursday in Chicago. By early Thursday evening, about 8 inches of snow had fallen on the ground, and winds were blowing at between 13 mph and 18 mph, according to CNN meteorologist Chad Myers.Onboard the plane arriving from Baltimore, Maryland, were 103 people -- 98 passengers and five crew members. It was scheduled to land shortly after 7 p.m. CT.Passenger Mike Abate told CNN that visibility was "just horrible," saying, "You couldn't even see the city lights until literally the last 10 seconds before the landing."The landing felt normal, he said, until he saw "the terminal to my right ... went by pretty quickly, and we were still at a pretty good clip. That's when I realized something wasn't going well."Fellow passenger Stanley Den said, "It looked like the runway wasn't plowed at all. The runway looked just like grass. I couldn't really tell if we were on the runway or the grass."It was really bumpy," he added. "We were kind of going for a while until the impact -- when we hit maybe, I guess, a barrier fence, went through that and into the middle of the street with cars and stuff riding past us."Midway airport lies in a dense residential and commercial district west of downtown.A bartender at a nearby pub said he heard two loud booms when the plane crashed into the intersection of 55th Street and Central Avenue on the northwest side of the airport. (Watch footage from the scene -- 1:33)"We thought it was an automobile accident, and we looked out the window and we saw the tail section of a Southwest airliner lying across the street," said Tom Fitzgerald, adding that he saw passengers exiting the rear of the plane."People were running, and ambulances were coming down the street."Amanda Doherty, who lives near the airport, said she saw a car pinned under the airplane with its headlights still on. (Watch witness account -- :27)Boy's family also injuredThe Cook County medical examiner's office identified the boy killed in the wreck as Joshua Woods, 6, of Leroy, Indiana."It was with great sadness that we learned of the death of a child who was in one of the vehicles hit by the aircraft," said Kelly, the Southwest CEO. "The entire Southwest family is grieving this loss, and our thoughts and prayers go out to the child's family, friends and loved ones."The boy's parents and two younger brothers were injured, according to Deborah Song, spokeswoman for Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oaklawn.Their car was crushed under the plane's nose and fuselage, said Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford. (Watch him describe victims and scene -- 2:22)As of Thursday night, the mother, in her 30s, was in good condition; the father, in his 40s, was in serious condition; the couple's 4-year-old middle son was in fair condition; and an infant was in serious condition, Song said.Song could not provide an update of the family's conditions Friday morning because the family requested no information be released to the media.Four people in a second car, found under a wing of the Boeing 737-700 jet, were in serious but stable condition.Plane was cleared to landThe jet remained in the intersection Friday morning as the investigation proceeded. Midway closed at 8:16 p.m. CT Thursday and reopened at 6 a.m. CT Friday.The National Transportation Safety Board said Friday it could take up to a year to determine what caused the crash.The flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder have been sent to NTSB headquarters in Washington and " will yield a plethora of information" for investigators, said NTSB member Ellen Engleman Conners.Visibility was three-quarters of a mile at the time of the landing, and weather would obviously be a major factor under review, she added.Earlier, Kelly estimated visibility to be a quarter-mile to a half-mile through heavy snow.Chicago's acting commissioner of aviation, Pat Harney, said airport runways had been salted and cleared Thursday, but he said he didn't know when the runway where the jet landed was last serviced. (Problems with older runways)"The aircraft was cleared for landing," Kelly said. "At this point, since it was cleared for landing, all we can do is assume that the runway was prepared for landing, but we don't have any specific info about the condition of the runway at this point."The pilot of the jet has been with Southwest for 10 years, and the co-pilot about three years, Kelly said."This was the first flight of the day for both pilots," he said.He added that there were no indications of maintenance problems with the plane, and that it underwent a routine check Wednesday in Phoenix, Arizona.The accident occurred the same day as a deadly crash at Midway 33 years ago when a plane coming in for a landing struck several homes before plowing into one.Forty-five people -- 43 passengers and two in the house -- were killed.CNN's Melissa Metzger contributed to this report.